Microsoft Family 365 Trap

[FrosteeMARIA]

It is that once you step forward there is no going back part that annoyed me as much as anything, as you say, subscription services are the new Golden Goose and even better for the supplier in that there is no physical product to manage and ship. Hearing that Microsoft were no help comes as no surprise at all, in fact I would have been more surprised had they helped.

I was really disappointed, as many years previously my xbox account was hacked and the fraudsters subsequently got hold of my credit card details. Microsoft at that time were amazing. They refunded the card instantly, wrote to my card issuer, even reinstated my account and left all the "fraudulent" purchases on there! Got a ton of free games as a result! (What's even more baffling is that the credit card company had made a mistake on my card and gave me a £20,000 limit instead of £2000. Bet the fraudsters thought it was Christmas and Birthday all at once!) They didn't max it out though, caught it just in time.

This subs model absolutely sucks balls though. Such a monopoly.

 

[Andy Farman]

I'd also note that google drive does google docs, that is all but identical, for free, and is cloud based. This may not be a useful option if you have loads of work on it (although knowing google I'll bet they allow reverse uploads, so to speak, as I know you can download in MS formats).

1/ Google Docs is entirely inferior. Form creation is abysmal, it has to be owing to MS owning the patents to anything half decent.
2/ Cloud is purely about revenue and as long as you can only save in Cloud, they own the document, not you.


The only reason so many people use Google Docs is that it is cheaper.

 

[MongMastermind]

1/ Google Docs is entirely inferior. Form creation is abysmal, it has to be owing to MS owning the patents to anything half decent.
2/ Cloud is purely about revenue and as long as you can only save in Cloud, they own the document, not you.


The only reason so many people use Google Docs is that it is cheaper.

I use Xero with Hubdoc, cloud based but a matter of convinience

 

[Andy Farman]

I use Xero with Hubdoc, cloud based but a matter of convinience

Cloud, the security is as leaky as a political parties p1ss-up

 

[Andy Farman]

I use Xero with Hubdoc, cloud based but a matter of convinience

I do not have a Smart TV because I do not like being spied upon, and the same goes for Cloud. Why give your privacy and intellectual property to a global corporation that sees you only as a cash cow.
I like MS Word because I am old and it is familiar, now that they have stopped moving all the buttons around and renaming them so that they can claim it is an updated version. The, 'Read Aloud' function is a great editing tool but I never use their One Drive for storage, I save documents and artwork to disc and no fewer than three external backups.
Yuri, a Ukrainian artist, created a book illustration for me, three days' work of cross-hatched pencil work and worth the price, which he stored on One-Drive. A week later a Russian artist had stolen it, erased the watermark, digitally colourised it, and was offering it for sale at a tenth of the price I had paid.
His plagiarism software found it. MS didn't even know they had been hacked. He uses external storage drives now.

 

[Fiona_TG]

I do not have a Smart TV because I do not like being spied upon, and the same goes for Cloud. Why give your privacy and intellectual property to a global corporation that sees you only as a cash cow.
I like MS Word because I am old and it is familiar, now that they have stopped moving all the buttons around and renaming them so that they can claim it is an updated version. The, 'Read Aloud' function is a great editing tool but I never use their One Drive for storage, I save documents and artwork to disc and no fewer than three external backups.
Yuri, a Ukrainian artist, created a book illustration for me, three days' work of cross-hatched pencil work and worth the price, which he stored on One-Drive. A week later a Russian artist had stolen it, erased the watermark, digitally colourised it, and was offering it for sale at a tenth of the price I had paid.
His plagiarism software found it. MS didn't even know they had been hacked. He uses external storage drives now.
View attachment 681338 View attachment 681339

I understand there are Onedrive encryption options. Although I haven't really looked at the offerings I presume/hope they include data at rest and data in motion using currently approved mechanisms and good practice policy and management.

Probably not something that many have thought about though as the starting assumption might be that unlike your example, most of what ends up there has no resale, intellectual property value. Sounds like it would be a goldmine for personal information and the sort of minutiae that Cambridge Analytica and the like drool over.

 

[GrumpyWasTooCheerful]

I understand there are Onedrive encryption options. Although I haven't really looked at the offerings I presume/hope they include data at rest and data in motion using currently approved mechanisms and good practice policy and management.

Probably not something that many have thought about though as the starting assumption might be that unlike your example, most of what ends up there has no resale, intellectual property value. Sounds like it would be a goldmine for personal information and the sort of minutiae that Cambridge Analytica and the like drool over.

And when you're dead and gone, an absolute goldmine for these companies: countless millions of deceased authors' documents & images all become theirs.

I wouldn't store anything on the cloud even if you paid me. Terry Pratchett had the right idea (though I have my suspicions about all his hdds being wiped and going under the steam roller).

 

[tommikka]

And when you're dead and gone, an absolute goldmine for these companies: countless millions of deceased authors' documents & images all become theirs.

I wouldn't store anything on the cloud even if you paid me. Terry Pratchett had the right idea (though I have my suspicions about all his hdds being wiped and going under the steam roller).

…. Bearing in mind that I stumbled upon the steam rollering of his drives and watched them survive each passing ….

 

[Fiona_TG]

...and another Direct Debit dirty trick, the television license. I had notified the licensing authority in March by their web form that I no longer needed a licence (that being renewal time) and back came the auto generated acknowledgment, with no other instruction that I needed to do anything else.

Now you might think as I did that would be that, but no, in July I noticed a license instalment payment on my bank statement. So I called licensing and it seems that just because you tell them you don't need one you are not saying you don't want one and until you take that extra step they will keep charging you!!!

Now I had gone to my bank after seeing my statement and cancelled the direct debit, and this morning (I am sure this will come as no surprise to anyone) I got the threatening letter saying I needed to reinstate that pronto. I called and told them I would not do that, they acknowledged that I could ignore the demand and I insisted they send me another letter stating that. Finally, they threw the July payment matter back to me saying I would have to complete a refund form, online of course.

So in summary you tell them you don't want a license, they say ok then send you one anyway and demand payment. B******* the lot of them.

 

[endure]

If you're paying anything by direct debit and you cancel it make sure you cancel the direct debit at your bank at the same time.

 

[Fiona_TG]

If you're paying anything by direct debit and you cancel it make sure you cancel the direct debit at your bank at the same time.

That is definitely the lesson I learnt on this occasion.